Bowman’s unorthodox soybean farming techniques have landed him at the center of a national battle over genetically modified crops. His legal battle, now at the Supreme Court, raises questions about whether the right to patent living things extends to their progeny, and how companies that engage in cutting-edge research can recoup their investments.

What Bowman did was to take commodity grain from the local elevator, which is usually used for feed, and plant it. But that grain was mostly progeny of Monsanto’s Roundup Ready beans because that’s what most Indiana soybean farmers grow. Those soybeans are genetically modified to survive the weedkiller Roundup, and Monsanto claims that Bowman’s planting violated the company’s restrictions.

Those supporting Bowman hope the court uses the case, which is scheduled for oral arguments later this month, to hit the reset button on corporate domination of agribusiness and what they call Monsanto’s “legal assault” on farmers who don’t toe the line. Monsanto’s supporters say advances in health and environmental research are endangered.

And the case raises questions about the traditional role of farmers. For instance: When a farmer grows Monsanto’s genetically modified soybean seeds, has he simply “used” the seed to create a crop to sell, or has he “made” untold replicas of Monsanto’s invention that remain subject to the company’s restrictions? ...

Farmers who buy seeds with the Roundup Ready trait sign an agreement that says they may be used for one planting only. Even though the gene exists in the new beans they grow, farmers cannot save them for a second planting, nor sell them to others for that purpose. But they are allowed to sell the beans to giant grain elevators, like those that are the most prominent feature on the flat landscape in Bowman’s corner of southern Indiana.

From 1999 to 2007, Bowman purchased Roundup Ready seeds for his first planting of soybeans and abided by Monsanto’s restrictions. But like some farmers, he also plants a second crop later in the growing season; such crops are highly dependent on the weather, which makes them more hit-or-miss.

It is too risky to pay the high price of Monsanto’s Roundup-resistant seeds for the second crop of the season, Bowman said, so instead he purchased cheaper commodity grain from the local elevator, which is usually used for feed. He planted it, and when he sprayed the crop with the herbicide, almost all survived. That wasn’t surprising, because 94 percent of Indiana soybean farmers grow Roundup Ready beans.

Bowman told Monsanto exactly what he was doing, and Monsanto told him to stop. The farmer was in effect “soybean laundering,” according to some of the companies supporting Monsanto at the Supreme Court — selling Roundup Ready progeny beans to the grain elevator and hoping other farmers were too, then buying them back and planting them...

Flavonoids are biologically active low molecular weight secondary metabolites that are produced by plants, with over 10,000 structural variants now reported. Due to their physical and biochemical properties, they interact with many diverse targets in subcellular locations to elicit various activities in microbes, plants, and animals. In plants, flavonoids play important roles in transport of auxin, root and shoot development, pollination, modulation of reactive oxygen species, and signalling of symbiotic bacteria in the legume Rhizobium symbiosis. In addition, they possess antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, and anticancer activities. In the plant, flavonoids are transported within and between plant tissues and cells, and are specifically released into the rhizosphere by roots where they are involved in plant/plant interactions or allelopathy. Released by root exudation or tissue degradation over time, both aglycones and glycosides of flavonoids are found in soil solutions and root exudates. Although the relative role of flavonoids in allelopathic interference has been less well-characterized than that of some secondary metabolites, we present classic examples of their involvement in autotoxicity and allelopathy. We also describe their activity and fate in the soil rhizosphere in selected examples involving pasture legumes, cereal crops, and ferns. Potential research directions for further elucidation of the specific role of flavonoids in soil rhizosphere interactions are considered.

The Global Food Safety Initiative states that internal audits are one of the requirements that ldquoadd robustness and rigour to the base requirements of food safety principles and provide added confidence and further verification of processesrdquo...

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Oregon State University aims to create rice with higher levels of vitamin B1 to make it more nutritious and at the same time, resistant to two crop-damaging diseases.

If the efforts are successful, it could mean higher yields for rice producers and a reduced use of pesticides.

Research shows vitamin B1, also known as thiamine, can boost the immune system of plants, including rice, cucumbers and tobacco. OSU's researchers are hoping that sustained accumulation of thiamine can make rice immune to bacterial leaf blight and rice blast, which cause significant yield losses in Southeast Asia, the world’s top rice-growing region.

"Literature suggests that if we boost vitamin B1 we may be able to enhance resistance to diseases most harmful to rice," said Aymeric Goyer, a plant biologist with the OSU Extension Service.

At OSU's Hermiston Agricultural Research and Extension Center, Goyer will grow rice that overexpresses genes that synthesize vitamin B1. Within 10 to 12 months, he'll see if the leaves contain higher-than-normal amounts of vitamin B1 and if the plants resist diseases.

Goyer will also see if the rice grain itself contains more thiamine, which is present only in low amounts in white rice. In areas of the world where white rice is the cornerstone of most diets, thiamine deficiencies are common. Thiamine helps create acids for digestion, supports carbohydrate metabolism and is essential for the overall health of the nervous system.

"We have the potential to make more nutritious rice while helping improve yields and find an alternative to pesticides," said Goyer.

The research is funded by Grand Challenges Explorations, an initiative of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Pamela Ronald from the University of California, Davis is a collaborator with Goyer on the grant.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Oregon State University aims to create rice with higher levels of vitamin B1 to make it more nutritious and at the same time, resistant to two crop-damaging diseases.

If the efforts are successful, it could mean higher yields for rice producers and a reduced use of pesticides.

Research shows vitamin B1, also known as thiamine, can boost the immune system of plants, including rice, cucumbers and tobacco. OSU's researchers are hoping that sustained accumulation of thiamine can make rice immune to bacterial leaf blight and rice blast, which cause significant yield losses in Southeast Asia, the world’s top rice-growing region.

"Literature suggests that if we boost vitamin B1 we may be able to enhance resistance to diseases most harmful to rice," said Aymeric Goyer, a plant biologist with the OSU Extension Service.

At OSU's Hermiston Agricultural Research and Extension Center, Goyer will grow rice that overexpresses genes that synthesize vitamin B1. Within 10 to 12 months, he'll see if the leaves contain higher-than-normal amounts of vitamin B1 and if the plants resist diseases.

Goyer will also see if the rice grain itself contains more thiamine, which is present only in low amounts in white rice. In areas of the world where white rice is the cornerstone of most diets, thiamine deficiencies are common. Thiamine helps create acids for digestion, supports carbohydrate metabolism and is essential for the overall health of the nervous system.

"We have the potential to make more nutritious rice while helping improve yields and find an alternative to pesticides," said Goyer.

The research is funded by Grand Challenges Explorations, an initiative of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Pamela Ronald from the University of California, Davis is a collaborator with Goyer on the grant.

The introduction of the first transgenic plant 30 years ago heralded the start of a second green revolution, providing food to the starving, profits to farmers and environmental benefits to boot. Many GM crops fulfilled the promise. But their success has been mired in controversy with many questioning their safety, their profitability and their green credentials. A polarized debate has left little room for consensus. In this special issue, Nature explores the hopes, the fears, the reality and the future.

Scientists of the agency are seeking permission to cultivate a GM wheat suitable for coeliacs on a plot of Córdoba. The harvest, half a ton of grain serve to develop and carry out a clinical trial with patients. Researchers believe that the cereal could reach the market within five years...

CSIC scientists have requested permission to plant there, on a plot of 1,000 square meters, wheat whose genes have been modified so that it can be consumed by people with celiac disease, a currently incurable disease of unknown origin that affects about 1% of the world population.

When people with celiac disease consume gluten - a protein found in wheat, barley and rye - their body's defenses react and damage the intestine. As a result, there are diarrhea, vomiting and unexplained weight loss until it is given to the cause. Their only option now is to eat gluten-free foods that are more expensive. Celiacs spent each year 1,600 euros more on food than the other people. In the U.S. alone, the market for gluten-free foods moved 4,200 billion in 2012.

To remedy this, a team from the Institute of Sustainable Agriculture Cordoba, led by biologist Francisco Barro, has since 2004 investigating transgenic wheat varieties without gluten. In 2011, researchers announced that they had obtained varieties capable of producing in celiacs "a reaction up to 95% less toxic than natural wheat", according to laboratory results.

Now, Barro has asked the National Biosafety Commission for a permit to grow wheat for the first time outdoors. His goal is to harvest half a ton of grain to make crackers that will be used to conduct a clinical trial with celiacs. The test, if all goes as planned, will be held for three months with between 30 and 60 patients, who will be able to taste wheat again, until now forbidden to them, in a trial coordinated by medical Queen Sofía Hospital. The biologist believes his cereal could reach the market within five years.

Barro is aware that its GM wheat "has no chance in Europe", the continent most reluctant to genetically modified organisms. Five countries - USA, Canada, Argentina, Brazil and India - grabbing global GM production, with 152 million hectares.

Europe only allows the cultivation of two GM crops: modified corn by the U.S. company Monsanto to be resistant to insect infestation and a starch potato from German chemicals company BASF for paper and textile industries. However, following a hypocritical policy, Brussels does support importing about 40 GM products from other countries.

The CSIC has sold the license to exploit the patent for its GM wheat, to a British company, Plant Bioscience Limited, based in Norwich. "Possibly, their strategy will be to cultivate our wheat in the U.S., Argentina and China, and they will sell the flour to Spain for the price of gold", speculates Barro.

According to preliminary studies, "in the worst case, a celiac can [at least] eat every day three slices of bread made from the modified wheat". Barro team has organized a blind tasting with 11 tasters, who were unable to distinguish the normal wheat bread from the one baked with transgenic cereals.

To prevent the escape of genetically modified wheat from the plot... CSIC scientists impose a safety distance of 200 meters to any other plot with cereal. Barro considered very unlikely that there is a leak, because "wheat pollen is heavy" and cannot travel long distances on the wind.

Wheat suitable for coeliacs has its genes modified to suppress the proteins responsible for the allergic response of celiacs, gliadins. "It would be surprising that this feature gave the GM wheat a competitive advantage over the normal wheat [if it escapes]," says Barro... "There are anti-GMO environmentalists, who are celiacs, who called me to try our wheat," says Barro...

STOCKHOLM: Swedish furniture giant Ikea said Tuesday it was investigating claims that Chinese authorities had found coliform bacteria, normally present in faecal matter, in an almond cake made inSweden for the company's restaurants.

The cake had failed tests "for containing an excessive level of coliform bacteria, according to the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection andQuarantine," the Shanghai Daily website wrote.

Ikea said 1,800 Taarta Chokladkrokant cakes - described on its website as an almond cake with chocolate, butter cream and butterscotch - were destroyed after being intercepted by Chinese customsin November.

"These cakes never reached our stores," said Ikea spokeswoman Ylva Magnusson, adding that the group was currently looking into whether cakes from the suspect batch had been sent to any other countries.

"There are indications that the levels of bacteria found are low but we obviously have to know the exact amount, and find out how this happened," she added.

Magnusson said the cakes had not been withdrawn from sale in any markets as of early Tuesday.

Ikea last week pulled its trademark meatballs off the shelves in 25 countries after Czech authorities found traces of horse DNA in a batch of one-kilogramme (2.2-pound) bags of frozen meatballs.

"It's very important to us that the products our customers buy are safe and secure to use and to eat," Magnusson said..

A natural, nontoxic product called genistein-combined polysaccharide, or GCP, which is commercially available in health stores, could help lengthen the life expectancy of certain prostate cancer patients, UC Davis researchers have found.

Paramita Ghosh

Men with prostate cancer that has spread to other parts of the body, known as metastatic cancer, and who have had their testosterone lowered with drug therapy are most likely to benefit. The study, recently published in Endocrine-Related Cancer, was conducted in prostate cancer cells and in mice.

Lowering of testosterone, also known as androgen-deprivation therapy, has long been the standard of care for patients with metastatic prostate cancer, but life expectancies vary widely for those who undergo this treatment. Testosterone is an androgen, the generic term for any compound that stimulates or controls development and maintenance of male characteristics by binding to androgen receptors.

The current findings hold promise for GCP therapy as a way to extend life expectancy of patients with low response to androgen-deprivation therapy.

Olive breeding programmes are focused on selecting for traits as short juvenile period, plant architecture suited for mechanical harvest, or oil characteristics, including fatty acid composition, phenolic, and volatile compounds to suit new markets. Understanding the molecular basis of these characteristics and improving the efficiency of such breeding programmes require the development of genomic information and tools. However, despite its economic relevance, genomic information on olive or closely related species is still scarce. We have applied Sanger and 454 pyrosequencing technologies to generate close to 2 million reads from 12 cDNA libraries obtained from the Picual, Arbequina, and Lechin de Sevilla cultivars and seedlings from a segregating progeny of a Picual × Arbequina cross. The libraries include fruit mesocarp and seeds at three relevant developmental stages, young stems and leaves, active juvenile and adult buds as well as dormant buds, and juvenile and adult roots. The reads were assembled by library or tissue and then assembled together into 81 020 unigenes with an average size of 496 bases. Here, we report their assembly and their functional annotation.

Excessive post-prandial glucose excursions are a risk factor for developing diabetes, associated with impaired glucose tolerance. One way to limit the excursion is to inhibit the activity of digestive enzymes for glucose production and of the transporters responsible for glucose absorption. Flavonols, theaflavins, gallate esters, 5-caffeoylqunic acid and proanthocyanidins inhibit α-amylase activity. Anthocyanidins and catechin oxidation products, such as theaflavins and theasinsensins, inhibit maltase; sucrase is less strongly inhibited but anthocyanidins seem somewhat effective. Lactase is inhibited by green tea catechins. Once produced in the gut by digestion, glucose is absorbed by SGLT1 and GLUT2 transporters, inhibited by flavonols and flavonol glycosides, phlorizin and green tea catechins. These in vitro data are supported by oral glucose tolerance tests on animals, and by a limited number of human intervention studies on polyphenol-rich foods. Acarbose is a drug whose mechanism of action is only through inhibition of α-amylases and α-glucosidases, and in intervention studies gives a 6% reduction in diabetes risk over 3 years. A lifetime intake of dietary polyphenols, assuming the same mechanism, has therefore a comparable potential to reduce diabetes risk, but more in vivo studies are required to fully test the effect of modulating post-prandial blood glucose in humans.

Although it’s known that plants can detect and respond to touch, how they relay information from physical contact has been less clear. Janet Braam’s group at Rice University and other labs had previously shown that the expression levels of many genes are upregulated in response to touch and that plants develop stockier builds if they are routinely perturbed. In their latest work, Braam’s team set out to identify how the physical perturbation was translated into growth changes. They found that a plant hormone called jasmonate is essential for the developmental responses to touch in Arabidopsis, and that touch itself, via jasmonate, can boost pest resistance.

Given jasmonate’s already-established roles in responding to light, injury, and pests, the addition of touch “means that what we’re looking at is different ways that signal inputs are being integrated,” says John Turner, a professor at the University of East Anglia, who was not involved in the study.

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